


Not With A Bang

by Roshwen



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Mild Jassandra if you like, Rating for death mention, The brain grape is acting up and it isn't pretty, h/c, impending character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 16:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11878581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roshwen/pseuds/Roshwen
Summary: “This is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper.”





	Not With A Bang

**Author's Note:**

> I decided that, while I love The Eternal Question (Vampires! Hot Lady Vampires! Hot Lady Vampires Kissing Cassandra!), I did not really like the cop-out that was the miracle surgery. So here. Have some impending brain grape death angst. This is unreviewed and unbeta'd, so please. If you notice any mistakes, come find me (Tumblr below).

Someone was whimpering.

Jake had been searching the Library shelves for the original copy of Samuel Pepys’ diary, because Jenkins had told him that if Jake _really_ wanted to know what caused the Great Fire of London, he shouldn’t trust all the edited and redacted copies that were out there. So Jake had set off to the British History 1650 -1675 section of the Library, which was housed in a room the size of a pretty decent cathedral.

Apparently, someone else was here too. And they were making a noise that could only mean they were in incredible pain. Jake had heard that noise once before: when his mother had finally plucked up the courage to slap his father in the face and announced she was done. She had not slapped him hard, but his father had sounded like she had clocked him in the face with a brick. The noise that was coming from behind the shelves was also like that, and unlike Jake’s father, the person who made it clearly needed help.

Jake rounded the corner of the shelf he was currently inspecting (housing Newton’s early draft of the Principia Mathematica which contained some _very_ interesting ideas on how math and magic interacted), and found Cassandra curled in a tight ball of shivering limbs on the floor, her hands clutching at her head like she was trying to pull it off her neck by force.

_Fuck._

He dropped to his knees beside her and gently tried to pry her hands away to get a look at her face. ‘Cassie,’ he said when in response, she only tightened the hold on her head, ‘Cassie, can you hear me?’

The whimpering became a high, keening wail and then suddenly stopped. For a moment, he thought she’d passed out, but the grip of her hands had not loosened and her entire body still radiated pain.

_Fuck._

He considered going back and getting Jenkins, but that would mean leaving Cassandra alone. He could carry her out of the Library and back to the Annex, but the quiet and the dim lights of the Library were probably part of the reason she had come here in the first place. The brightness and the chaos of the Annex probably would only make things worse. Besides, Eve would probably demand Jenkins open a door to the hospital _right now,_ when Cassandra had already told them she had seen enough hospital beds for a lifetime.

‘When something happens,’ she told them, ‘no hospitals. Not for the brain grape, anyway. You can take me to a hospital if I fall down the stairs and break my leg, but otherwise please. Don’t.’

Jake and Ezekiel had just nodded, Flynn had looked at her with pity, which Jake knew Cassandra hated, and Eve had looked doubtful but hadn’t objected. If he brought Cassandra back to the Annex now, he wasn’t sure Eve would remember what she promised, or care about it for that matter.

There was just one thing he could do. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to find some purchase on her tight frame, and got up to his feet, holding her tight against his chest. This made the whimpering start up again, which he took as a good sign. ‘It’s OK, sweetheart,’ he murmured, ‘it’s gonna be OK.’

He had no idea if she could hear him, but saying it made him feel better as he carried her into a corner, where he knew there was a couch in a little reading nook.

He sat down and carefully settled Cassandra against him, still murmuring soft words into her hair. After a few impossibly long minutes, the whimpering abated somewhat and he thought he could feel her body relaxing a little. After another minute, she finally moved her hands away from her head, only to bury them in his shirt. He smiled, trying not to get knocked out by the relief washing over him, and carefully tucked some strands of hair behind her ear, so he could at last get a look at her face.

Cassandra’s eyes were still screwed shut, and her cheeks were wet with tears. She was not making any sound now, but it was not the terrifying silence that meant the pain had just become too much to cry out. Whatever just happened, it was clear it was only a temporary attack and the pain was now receding.

_Thank God._

He carefully wiped the tears away with the edge of his sleeve, and saw her mouth curl into a smile when she felt his hands. ‘Hey Cassie,’ he said softly, ‘you back with me yet?’

She tried to nod, which was a bad idea judging by the sudden spasm rocking her body. ‘Easy there,’ Jake said, tightening his grip on her, ‘don’t try to move just yet, OK? Take it easy.’

Cassandra relaxed again, her breathing evening out. Jake started stroking her hair, as if he could get the last remnants of the pain to leave that way. He considered telling her how she just scared the hell out of him, but decided against it. It would only make her feel guilty, and besides, this was not about him. Instead, he just kept her stroking her hair until she finally opened her eyes and looked up at him.

‘Hey,’ he said, smiling down at her.

‘Shhh,’ she whispered back. ‘You know what happens when a really bad pain just suddenly stops?’

Jake smiled wider and nodded. ‘Endorphin rush. Is it good?’

‘Yeah,’ Cassandra whispered in a blissed out voice, closing her eyes again. Jake huffed a laugh, pressed a kiss to her forehead and held her close while she rode out the high.

‘That brain grape giving you trouble again?’ he asked when she opened her eyes again. He kept his voice studiously light, but he saw her face darken. ‘Yeah,’ she said.

Jake hesitated for a moment, not sure if he really wanted to know more. He didn’t have to decide however, because Cassandra swallowed and continued ‘It’s getting worse, Jake.’

_Yeah, I noticed it might be getting worse when I found you trying to rip your own head off your shoulders._

‘How bad is it?’ he asked, his voice still casual as if asking how bad it was raining outside. He didn’t really know how he managed to sound so calm, but he was glad he did: Cassandra absolutely hated people crying over her.

‘I went to see my oncologist last week,’ Cassandra said after a pause that did nothing for Jake’s nerves.

_Fuck._

‘She said the headaches will only get worse for the next few weeks.’

 _Fuck._ ‘And then?’

She looked at him, and he already knew the answer. ‘There is no ‘and then’, Jake. A few weeks, and that’s it.’

For a moment, there was nothing but the deafening silence of the Library.

_Keep breathing, Stone._

_Fuck._

‘Jake?’ Cassandra frowned at him. ‘Jake, don’t…’

_Don’t tell her you’re sorry. Don’t swear, no matter how much you want to. And above all, don’t start crying. You know how much she hates it when people start crying._

He took a breath. Another one. And a third one, for good measure. Finally, he found his voice again.

‘I thought…’ He didn’t finish the sentence, but she knew what he meant.

‘… that I’d have a bit more time? So did I.’ She shrugged. ‘But then again, I’ve been living in borrowed time for years now, so it’s not… it’s not really a surprise.’

_It still sucks._

‘It still sucks, Cassie,’ he said softly. He reckoned she wouldn’t give him grief for saying it out loud. He was right: she just smiled a strange little half-smile and said ‘Not as much as I thought it would. At least the headaches will stop then.’

He managed a smile too, then pressed a kiss in her hair so she wouldn’t see his face fall. ‘There’s that,’ he agreed.

They sat together like that for quite a long time, with Cassandra’s face buried in the crook of Jake’s neck, Jake’s chin resting on her hair and his arms wrapped around her as if he could keep her with him if he only held her tight enough.

There, in the dim light and the quiet of the Library, the outside world became irrelevant for a while. Time slowed down. Not for long, because time never slows down long for anyone, but for the two people curled into each other on the worn old sofa in the corner of the British History 1650 -1675 section, it was enough.

It would have to be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: hedgehog-o-brien


End file.
